In order to help constrain the rising costs of medical care, numerous approaches have been taken to reduce the costs of both the goods and services related to providing medical care. Reducing the cost of a single item by even a small amount can lead to tremendous cost savings if that item is used in sufficient quantity and the function of the item is not compromised. These savings permit available funds to be more efficiently spent and thereby benefit both patient and provider.
One area of high volume use is that of hospital garments. A number of specialized garments are available to cover both medical personnel and patients. An example is the "scrub shirt" commonly worn during pre-operative procedures by operating room personnel. After the personnel have scrubbed while wearing scrub shirts and scrub pants, operating room gowns, gloves, caps and other garments are donned. In the course of a typical day, an operating room will utilize dozens of scrub shirts. Typically, the shirts are reusable and are washed after each use and subsequent wearers select a shirt of the appropriate size from a laundered batch. Such fungible use, however, may lead to problems of fit, since operating room personnel come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Thus, the supply of laundered scrub apparel must be kept stocked with a wide variety of sizes. It would therefore be desirable to provide a scrub shirt design which is unisex in both sizing and fit. Such a design would be provided in four or five sizes which would provide an acceptable fit on nearly every person, male or female.
Moreover, as pointed out above, it would also be desirable to provide a scrub shirt which could be manufactured with less labor and which makes more efficient use of the garment material, thereby resulting in cost savings. Labor reduction would preferably entail a reduction in the number and complexity of seams without sacrificing the strength of the garment. The strength of this type of garment is an important attribute since repeated washing and wearing will tend to cause inferior designs to fall apart before they have otherwise worn out.
Others have attempted to design garments which are both comfortable and easier to manufacture. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,275--Lunt discloses a disposable gown for medical patients. The gown disclosed is formed of a substantially rectangular body having two triangularly shaped cutouts which receive the separate sleeve portions. One of the stated objectives of the design disclosed is to provide a garment which is easy to manufacture. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,499--Benevento et al. discloses a disposable medical gown fashioned from a single piece of material to provide a seamless front. The garment is worn by first placing the arms through the sleeves and then overlapping and fastening the lateral edges of the garment along the wearer's back. Although this design appears to make somewhat efficient use of the gown fabric, the construction required is relatively complex in relation to the sewing required. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 3,720,957--Patience discloses a conformable disposable garment formed from two portions. The upper portion is in the form of a rectangle having two trapezoids extending from opposite sides and a convex neck hole cut in the center. When folded about its longitudinal axis, the upper portion trapezoids form sleeves and the convex opening becomes an arcuate neck opening. The lower portion of the garment is formed from a substantially rectangular section of material. In the embodiment disclosed, an operating room gown, the garment is provided with an open back, and is closed by overlapping the lateral edges of the garment along the wearer's back. This design provides relatively straight seams, which are easier to sew; however, this design has the disadvantage of wasting portions of the fabric, such as the neck cutout.
The repeated use which typical scrub shirts undergo dictates a rugged design. Also, since they are worn closest to the skin beneath other garments such as operating room gowns, it is preferable to have seamless shoulders and a lack of ties, fasteners or the like which add complexity and bulk to operating room attire. Therefore, as reflected by the prior art designs discussed above, there is a need for a scrub shirt or other garment which possesses all of these attributes of ruggedness, fit and comfort, but which is also simple and efficient to manufacture.